The present invention relates to a lens cleaner capable of being mounted on a compact disk player (hereinafter referred to as a CD player) and a method for cleaning a pick-up lens on a side of the player.
In a conventional CD player, a recording signal is read through an optical lens just opposite to the compact disk. If foreign matter, such a floating dust in the air and textile wastes, adheres to the surface of this optical pick-up lens, an error can occur in the reading of the signal with resultant deteriorations of the regeneration characteristics.
In an attempt to solve such a problem and to clean the pick-up lens, lens cleaners having substantially the same shape as the compact disk have been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 60-40,537 and Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. Sho 62-57,931.
Such conventional lens cleaners comprise long cleaning members formed of an assembly of a large number of brushing hairs fixedly mounted on the surface of a disk across a lead-in area in the radial direction. Also the lens cleaner currently available on the market have cleaning members formed of an assembly of a series of radially long brushing hairs projecting from the surfaces of a disk by about 3 mm, a circumferential width of 2 to 4 mm and a radial length of 6 to 10 mm and projected from the surface of the disk by about 3 mm. Also, a series of triangular cloths have been used as cleaning members.
In such conventional lens cleaners, however, a series of cleaning members are densely arranged at one place or at most two opposite places so that they stride over or straddles the lead-in area. As a result, the area of one cleaning member is too large, and the cleaning members themselves act as obstacles. Accordingly, when the pick-up lens is focused with movement toward the compact lens and the surface of the lens is brought into contact with the brushes, a protective circuit on the side of the CD player for avoiding the obstacle is operated to stop the rotation of the cleaner. Consequently, the cleaning cannot be carried out under such circumstances. Furthermore, it frequently happens that the lens cleaner is stopped after only one rotation.
In addition, because a series of cleaning members formed of brushing hairs and the like are simultaneously rubbed against the surface of the lens to remove foreign matter, the coating layer on the surface of the lens is apt to be damaged and substantially reduce the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the pick-up system. Furthermore, depending on the type of CD player, the player can be interrupted by the contact resistance with the cleaning member.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a lens cleaner capable of preventing a poor cleaning action from occurring when cleaning members are brought into contact with a pick-up lens on the side of a CD player.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a lens cleaner capable of preventing the pickup lens on the side of the CD player from being damaged and to increase the cleaning capacity.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a lens cleaner wherein bundles of brushing hairs can be easily planted on a surface of the disk.
The foregoing objects have been achieved in accordance with the present invention by finely dividing the cleaning members to such an extent that the focusing action of the pick-up lens and the rotary action of the disk are not hindered and some of the respective unit cleaning members are less densely arranged on the surface of the disk under the condition that they are movable in the circumferential direction and the radial direction.